Commentary on life, issues, movies and anything else that comes to mind.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Biodiesel as a fuel alternative.

I recently sent President Bush the following letter:

Mr. President:

In recent comments to the media you expressed that we need to buildmore oil refineries. While doing so may be an immediate solution toour current fuel crisis, it does not reduce our dependency in foreignoil. We currently have the technology and the resources to use aviable and clean fuel alternative; Biodiesel.

Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil, and it can be produced from anyvegetable. I firmly believe that building an infrastructure to supportthe use and production of biodiesel is the long term solution toreplacing fossil fuels. There is even research to support that somespecies of algae are made of over 50% oils that can be extracted forbiodiesel production. The benefits of biodiesel are many:- Minimal to zero impact to the environment, biodiesel has a 1:1 ratioof emissions from biodiesel to the CO2 required by plants to produceoil.- Farmers would benefit from diverse crops. Farmers could become thenew oil magnates.- There is minimal to no cost for converting diesel vehicle fleets tobiodiesel, in fact only fleets operating in cold climates wouldrequire any conversion.- All transportation and services that use diesel can use biodiesel instead.- As the infrastructure for biodiesel grows the cost of fuel would godown, it is a truly renewable source.- Research has shown that vehicles running on biodiesel require lessmaintenance than those running on diesel fuel.- The mileage from diesel and biodiesel engines is almost twice tothat of gasoline.

While hybrid cars present a step forward in our quest to reduce ourdependency for oil, it does not eliminate that dependency, biodieselwill eliminate our dependency on oil.

I recently purchased a diesel automobile (Volkswagen Jetta TDI) and Iintend to use biodiesel as soon as I can find it in my area, currentlyI would have to buy a 55 gallon drum from a local retailer at 2.85 pergallon, not much cheaper than diesel but the fact that my car wouldrun cleaner than other vehicles is worth the cost. As I mentionedbefore, the mileage is dramatically better. I live in Miami and Idrove to Key West and back on less than 11 gallons of diesel, that'snearly 45 miles per gallon. Driving around town my mileage is around36-40 mpg.

Mr.President I hope that your administration considers Biodiesel a toppriority in the next few years, I strongly believe that it is thesolution to our fuel woes.